Iowa’s spring turkey hunting begins this Friday with the youth season, and Guthrie County is likely to provide success, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

DNR Conservation Officer Jeremy King says he’s been seeing lots of turkeys around the county in the last couple weeks, especially on sunny calm days. King explains that measuring the turkey population isn’t the easiest, “Unlike deer, which we use a number of different methods to count deer and see what our population’s doing, turkeys we just don’t have that available to us. So basically the only avenue of data that we collect is what we call a bow hunter’s survey. And that’s mailed to random bow hunters and throughout the year while they’re bow hunting they fill out a card that says the dates and the county they are in and how many turkeys they see. And that is basically our only way of knowing what our turkey population is doing along with somebody harvesting and having to report the harvest.”

COVID-19 has not changed hunting and fishing regulations in Iowa, but King reminds hunters to follow health recommendations including keeping at least six feet apart from each other, and not gathering in groups of 10 or more people. Residents can also purchase licenses and specialty tags online or through their Go Outdoors IA mobile app. The Iowa DNR also recommends reporting your harvest online or by text, more details can be found here.